mountaindewfandomcom-20200215-history
Mountain Dew Timeline
This project is a work-in-progress and is very much under construction. As such, it is locked from editing. 1940's *Early 40's - Brothers Barney and Ally Hartman, who own Hartman Beverage, begin bottling a lithiated-lemon drink to be mixed with hard-liquor. It is dubbed "Mountain Dew," a term originally used for Tennessee mountain-made moonshine. *1946 - Bottles of Mountain Dew are given labels featuring the classic hillbilly design. *November 12, 1948 - The Hartman brothers file for and receive a copyright on the Mountain Dew name. *1949 - Barney Hartman dies, leaving Ally as the sole owner of the Mountain Dew name. 1950's *1954 - Tri-County Beverage begins carrying the first franchise of Mountain Dew. *1955 - Mountain Dew becomes available commercially. These are the first ACL (Applied Color Label) bottles of Mountain Dew, which read: "by Charlie, Jim and Bill." *1955 - Hartman Beverages begins producing the second set of ACL Mountain Dew. These bottles read "by Barney and Ally" because they were originally ordered in 1951, but were stored in a warehouse until then. *1955 - A Pepsi bottling plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina begin bottling Mountain Dew. This is the first time Pepsi notices Mountain Dew's potential. *1957 - Ally Hartman becomes co-owner of the Tip Corporation along with four other men. He then sells the Mountain Dew brand to it. *1959 - A man named Bill Bridgforth is made plant man manager of Tri-City Beverage in Johnson City, Tennessee. He, along with Bill Jones (one of the Tip Corporation's co-owners) developed a new drink called Tri-City Lemonade. 1960's *1960 - Bill Bridgforth then merges his Tri-City Lemonade flavor with the Mountain Dew formula, replacing the 7-Up flavor it had been using. (This is the creation of the current flavor Mountain Dew has used to this day.) *1962 - Herman Minges (another co-owner of Tip) also merges Tri-City Lemonade with Mountain Dew in an effort to compete with a local brand called SunDrop Cola. *May 29, 1962 - The Tip Corporation grants its first franchise to Kingston, North Carolina's Pepsi-Cola Bottler. These bottles read "by Hoyte Minges." *September 2, 1964 - Pepsi purchases the Tip Corporation, and with it the Mountain Dew name and rights. *1965 - Pepsi unveils the "Ya-Hooo!" Mountain Dew promotion. At this time, the Mountain Dew label is redesigned to be more humorous, featuring Willy the Hillbilly and the phrase "It'll tickle yore innards!" Pepsi also orders all distributors of Mountain Dew to stop using their names on them. 1970's *1973 - Pepsi completely alters Mountain Dew's packaging, abandoning the "hillbilly" look and changing the logo for the first time since the drink's creation to appeal to a "younger, outdoorsy generation." *1976 - Caffeine-Free Mountain Dew is introduced. It is the first additional drink on the Mountain Dew line. 1980's *1984 - With the growing trend in America of weight-watching, a Sugar-Free Mountain Dew is released, using an all-red variant of the standard packaging. *1986 - Sugar-Free Mountain Dew is then renamed Diet Mountain Dew, using a green and white-stripped variant of the standard packaging. *1988 - Mountain Dew Red is introduced for test marketing in Alabama, and is the first Mountain Dew flavor variant. A Diet version is also tested alongside it. Both are discontinued this same year. *1989 - Mountain Dew Sport has a test release on shelves. 1990's *1990 - Following its successful test release, Mountain Dew Sport returns to shelves, along with a 2-calorie variant and and Diet variant. *1991 - All versions of Mountain Dew Sport are completely removed from shelves. *1996 - Mountain Dew's logo is changed to a similar, but less-wavy one. *1996 - Production of Mountain Dew spreads to the United Kingdom. *1998 - This U.K. production is now ended due to bad sales. *1999 - The Mountain Dew logo is changed once again, this time to a more-drastically angled one. The packaging also changes, now using a green swirl design. 2000's *2001 - The cherry-flavored Mountain Dew Code Red joins the Mountain Dew line as the first flavor variant ever distributed nationally. *2001 - Pepsi releases Amp Energy a mixed-citrus-flavored energy drink with packaging that read "From Mountain Dew." *2002 - Following Code Red's success and high demand, a Diet Code Red is released. *June 2002 - Mountain Dew Blue Shock is released as a limited-edition Slurpee flavor in 7-Eleven stores. *2003 - The orange-flavored Mountain Dew Live Wire briefly joins the line for a summer-only release. *2004 - Taco Bell restaurants begin carrying the tropical-lime-flavored Mountain Dew Baja Blast in their drink fountains, which is chemically formulated to taste good with their food. *2004 - Mountain Dew Live Wire returns for a second summer release. *2004 - For the Halloween season, the black grape-flavored Mountain Dew Pitch Black is temporarily added to the Mountain Dew line. *2005 - The Mountain Dew packaging is redesigned, this time featuring a more rounded, pointy logo, and a smooth design on a dark green background. *2005 - Darth Dew is released to promote the movie "Star Wars Episode III." *2005 - Following test marketing by online participants, Mountain Dew MDX is released in hopes of competing with Coca-Cola's Vault energy drinks. *2005 - After it's successful summer releases in the previous two years, Mountain Dew Live Wire returns to shelves as a permanent addition to the line. *2005 - Again for the Halloween season, Mountain Dew releases another limited-edition flavor, Pitch Black II, which uses the Pitch Black flavor from the previous year, but with an added sour bite. *2006 - Mountain Dew MDX begins using 20 oz. bottles that have a grip-like shape for holding. *2006 - Over the course of this year, the Mountain Dew Arctic Burst and Kryptonite Ice Slurpee flavors are released for a limited time to promote the movie "Superman Returns." *2006 - The original Pitch Black flavor returns for a limited time, this time as a Slurpee flavor. *2007 - Production of Mountain Dew MDX is phased out. *2007 - The Green Label Art promotion is launched, and limited-edition aluminum cans of Mountain Dew are release, featuring artwork by artistic fans. *August 2007 - To coincide with the release of the video game Halo 3, Mountain Dew Game Fuel is released in both drink and Slurpee forms for a 12-week period, with packaging that feature's the game's logo and main character - Master Chief. *November 2007 - The first DEWmocracy campaign is launched, which is centered around the idea of Mountain Dew drinkers designing the next permanent flavor on the line. A website is launched, on which fans create profiles to play a role-playing game to select attributes that they believe would make the perfect Mountain Dew drink (flavor, logo, name, color, etc.) *January 2008 - DEWmocracy enters its second phase, and three flavor finalists are chosen. The flavors are then given colors, designs, and names - Revolution, SuperNova, and Voltage. *2008 - Frito-Lay (a division of PepsiCo) reveals the Doritos Quest promotion, in which a line of mystery-flavored Doritos are produced, and fans are to guess what the flavor actually is. Later this year, the flavor is revealed to be Mountain Dew.